Category Archives: Fine Art

I have a bit of a problem. I have a fairly substantial set of artists that I admire, draw inspiration, and just generally go ga-ga over. That isn’t the problem. My problem lies in the fact that I tend to blabber to anyone that will listen, usually poor Colleen, about said artists.

I’ve decided to take this pent-up art-love energy and spread it a little around here. Maybe it will provide a little insight into why I do what I do, maybe it will introduce some to some new artists, maybe it will bore you to tears. Whatever, indulge me, dears.

I first heard of Mann during one of our “let’s watch a documentary” days during a photography class one semester. I’m the sort that takes furious notes during these docus, but this one left me mouth-agape and with only “Sally Mann” scrawled into my Moleskine. That’s big.

I immediately fell in love with her and her work– her photographs are intimate, eerie, and hauntingly beautiful. She uses mainly her family as subjects, which of course resonated with me after using JP as my main subject for so long. Anyway, less talk, more rock. (I need to stop myself while I still can).

Blogger headers, backgrounds, and design consultations (Blogger is not my arena, but I can help do a simple header/background/color overhaul.)

Online invitations

Wedding websites

Misc. websites (portfolio, product, etc.)

Branding

Ok, perhaps not so quick, but I think I hit all of the high points. I’m based in Atlanta, but am willing to travel for services that require it! So c’mon, let’s play. I want to make your stuff pretty. You can either use the handy-dandy contact form on this page, or email me– lauren@iloveyoumuch.com

I’ve been gone. I know, I’m terrible, but I had to do it. If I hadn’t put myself on wedding hiatus, there would be no way in hockey sticks that I would ever have been able to do all of the things I’ve done.

Oh, what have I done, you ask? Well, this Friday is my senior exit show, and I’ve been working my tail off to get everything ready. Countless hours matting, framing, cutting, linen-taping, nailing, painting, screaming, four-letter-wording, not sleeping, you name it– all for one (hopefully) glorious exit show. I wish that I had photos to show you of the entire process, but that would probably have been ridiculously impossible for me to do, you know, while like holding, oh, a three-foot piece of glass and not killing myself.

Of course there are pictures of the everything-is-almost-hung-and-labeled-thank-goodness aftermath.

There you have it! The lights aren’t set yet, and that one drawing still isn’t hung, but it’s all so close to being 100% ready! Now that I’m at the finish line for the show opening, it’s time for me to get back into wedding mode, which is proving to be more difficult than I would have imagined. If not for the lists I made pre-hiatus, I would have no idea what we were doing or what I should be doing.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that I get my wedding mojo back and that the opening on Friday goes smoothly!

Did you take any wedding hiatuses? How did they leave you? Refreshed and ready to wedding-land, or totally clueless?

Ok, I lied. This is not a how-to or tutorial. It’s just a process post. Sorry guys.

JP is awesome enough to allow me to draw and paint him. All. The. Time. He models for me like a champ. Last night, I did a new pastel drawing for my life drawing class, and it went a little something like this…

First, I drew outlines. This takes about 100 years, because I’m really neurotic. I do lots of that really dumb looking pencil-measuring-arm-out thing. I mock myself internally.

Next, I had to make sure to take a creepy sorority-smiling picture to skeeve everybody out. Properly scared? Moving on.

So after that, I don’t touch the computer anymore to take pictures, because I’ll be elbow deep in soft pastels. Basically, I just layer layer layer, color color color, finger-paint, finger-paint, finger-paint.

Of course I also had to take a crappy cellphone shot for good measure. There’s no way in heck I’d get the good camera out. Messy dusty icky!

Anyway, woo! JP has skin! And lips! But no eyes, hair, or eyebrowns. Those guys come last… especially the eyebrowns. After this point, I took a a one-hour break to gossip on the internets. Oh, who am I kidding, it was closer to two. I made sure to document this with another creepy picture, this time of my pastel-covered face.

Awesome. Ok, enough blubbering around. I went and gave JP some eyeballs, eyebrowns, and hair. And a shirt.

Well, that’s finished! Hooray for JP drawings! I hope you all weren’t to “WTF is she showing us?!” with regards to this post. I’d like to think that it gives a nice little slice into what I spend my time doing, besides internetting and whining.

In May I am having a big ol’ art show. Yes, the very May that is right before our June wedding. I am that crazy, but I love what I do. For the show, I’m doing large-scale and larger-than-life portraits of JP and me. When I say large-scale, I’m talking 4′x6′ canvases. Muy grande. I have one finished and another one that is in time-out because I’m mad at it. Today, I started another one and had a lot of fun with it, even though by the end of the day I’d been sitting indian-style on concrete for a total of about 6 hours. (I paint better like that. I will rotate the canvas and paint it upside down or sideways. Leave me alone. I’m eccentric).

I’d love to be able to incorporate some paintings into our reception. While the paintings I’m doing for my show are not totally wedding-appropriate, as some are nekkid, I’m considering doing a more wedding-appropriate large portrait of the two of us. I think that would be a nice addition if I can pull it off time-wise.

Ok, enough of the blah-blah, on to the photos! This bad boy is VERY unfinished and VERY in-process.

P.S. The blue sweater part won’t swoop that much before my nose. The paint was just too wet and heavy in that part to blue-over it.

My brushes always love glamor shots.

That’s one of my views from the floor. You can see the almost-finished painting of JP in the background.

My easel, which I haven’t used lately because I’ve decided I like propping the canvases against the wall better.

And my paint and glasses, well, because I’m weird? And I flipping love Holbein. And Chanel. If you want to see more shots of the painting, go see the flickr set.